


A Ring on It

by DoreyG



Category: The Turner Series - Cat Sebastian
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 07:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16739605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: "The ring," Lawrence rumbled, on their second night back at Penkellis.





	A Ring on It

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GoldenThreads](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenThreads/gifts).



"The ring," Lawrence rumbled, on their second night back at Penkellis.

They'd just made love, again, and his brain was proving rather embarrassingly slow to get up to full speed. He blinked, awkwardly, carefully raised his head from Lawrence's chest to look the man in the eye. "The ring?"

"The _ring_ ," Lawrence repeated impatiently, his face wrinkling as it always tended to when he was undergoing some great revelation, and in the next moment he found himself tumbling to the floor. He laid there in a confused heap, watching as Lawrence rose to his feet and marched into his bedroom with a certain level of determination.

"Can I help?" He asked after a considering pause, and after he'd stretched out to a slightly less undignified heap.

No answer. Just the sound of low rattling, the occasional bang as if Lawrence was tearing about his bedroom like a hurricane.

"Lawrence!" He called, and grumbled to himself when that still failed to get any proper response. He did so only softly, though. He was still too contented, too outright and joyous over getting to actually stay in Lawrence's life, to summon genuine anger as of yet. "For heaven's sake, if you just tell me what you're searching for..."

He rolled up to his hands and knees, and paused. Lawrence was standing in the doorway and staring down at him, the jewellery box from earlier - what seemed like _years_ ago now - clutched in his hands.

They stared at each other for a long moment, faintly nonplussed.

He cleared his throat, still nonplussed but reluctant to keep gawping silently like some sort of fool, and sat back on his knees in a manner as dignified as he could manage. "you really should've let me help."

"I knew what I was looking for," Lawrence said gruffly. Rocked on his heels for a moment, a touch uncertainly as he watched his slow progress from the carpet, then scowled a little and marched back across the room.

"Nonetheless..."

"Hush," Lawrence ordered, and actually picked him up. He appreciated the odd sense of weightlessness for a long few moments, and then appreciated it even more when they moved and he found himself settled across Lawrence's lap. "I've been thinking about this since I found you again. Not _constantly_ , you kept distracting me too regularly, but with an almost disturbing frequency."

He considered a sarcastic comment about all the many kinds of _distraction_ he was capable of, but then saw the tender expression on Lawrence's face and very quickly decided that there were better times for teasing. "go on."

"I know you don't need most of this anymore," Lawrence said bluntly, with a rattle of the box like it was nothing. A small part of him, as much as he wanted to deny it entirely, still winced at seeing such wealth being shabbily treated. "so with most of it you can do what you please: festoon yourself with it, throw it into the sea, feed it to Barnabus. I don't care. But there's one thing I'd like you to have."

"The ring," he said, catching on to Lawrence's near babbling - his nervous rush of inspiration - at quite some speed.

"The ring," Lawrence confirmed softly, a touch bashfully, and flipped the box open. The emerald ring was resting on top, in a way that suggested it'd been placed there _carefully_. "This belonged to my father."

"Oh."

"My father, who never stopped ranting about how much he hated 'sodomites' and wished them all to burn in hell," Lawrence said, surprisingly levelly all things considered, and lifted the ring out for him to inspect. "Now that he himself is burning in hell, I would take great pleasure in putting this on the hand of the man I love."

" _Oh_ ," He said, a little more pleased by that, and gave Lawrence a smile that probably trembled a fair bit around the edges. "Are you sure you know exactly what you're doing?"

"Yes," Lawrence said, just as blunt as ever but with a slight smile starting to tick up the side of his mouth.

"You're not just spiting your father, you know," he said, teasingly. He grinned widely to show that he was, leaned forward to gently run his hands through Lawrence's hair. "I mean, in many relationships the giving of a ring has a certain significance..."

"Yes," Lawrence informed him, that slight smile still lingering at the side of his beautiful mouth. "I _know_."

He stared for a long moment, the urge to tease fading as shock surged through him. Lawrence stared back at him levelly, a certain hope in his eyes that made his heart beat so much faster in his chest.

"I was married before, you know. In case you've forgotten, it's the entire reason we have Simon in our lives," Lawrence continued gently, reaching up to catch his lingering hand against the side of his face. "I know about the giving of rings, and all the other little rituals that follow after. I'm aware that it's slightly different for two men in some ways..."

"In some ways," he croaked, and wonderingly ran his fingers over the stubble slowly starting to cover Lawrence's cheek. "Not least the risk of hanging if we indulge in those rituals publicly."

"...But I suspect what lies underneath is much the same," Lawrence finished solemnly, looking just a little like he wanted to roll his eyes at his foolishness. "It's a way of saying that we don't care about all the risks, and all the potential horrors. It's a way of saying that we both think that what we have will last. It's a way of saying, above all else, that we _want_ to be with each other for the rest of our lives."

He swallows, stares into space for a long second. When he finally meets Lawrence's steady gaze again, he can't help his lips from stretching into something painfully sincere. "You're proposing marriage. To _me_."

"I'm proposing that you be foolish enough to spend the rest of your life with me," Lawrence said, still doggedly solemn, and gently shifted him off his lap. In the next moment he was sliding down the settee, kneeling before him in a pose that he'd never thought to see in all his days. "How does it go... Ah, yes. In sickness and in health, in good times and bad, until one of my inventions explodes and sends us all to the bottom of the ocean."

He snorted out a laugh, kept his eyes on Lawrence's as he considered.

"What do you say?"

He stared for another moment, in silence... And then reached out to pluck the ring from Lawrence's fingers. It slid on over his thumb just as easily as before, rested there more beautifully than any other piece of jewellery he'd ever seen. "I'd say that it's a little big. Might slide off me in the night and leave me bereft, if I don't keep a close eye on it."

He he glanced up again Lawrence was staring at him with suspiciously damp eyes, his mouth entirely turned up into a beautifully bright smile. "I'm sure there are things that can be done about that."

"There's a jewellers in Exeter. Possibly a few even closer, if I can be bothered to look. I'll go as soon as you can spare me, maybe sooner," he said firmly, beamed as Lawrence gave a faintly raw sounding laugh and unfurled himself from the floor. "Would you like me to give my answer more explicitly, before we celebrate?"

"Georgie," Lawrence assured him, now beaming down at him with the most brightly shining eyes imaginable. "I _always_ like you when you're explicit."

"Well, then." He settled back on the settee, hooked his ankles around the back of Lawrence's thighs and tugged until the man was fully bent over him. Until their absurdly bright smiles met each other, and grew so much stronger as a result. "Yes, then. I _will_ spend the rest of my life with you. How could I want to do anything else, after all?"


End file.
